Chapter 37
After that, I continued to visit the Princess almost every day for about 3 weeks.
It might sound strange to say this, but it felt similar to taming a wild animal. I would bring snacks or delicious food to feed her, and I also brought a few picture books to read to her.
Although she would always become irritable and try to harm herself or become violent at 2 PM on Tuesdays as she always had, I actively hugged and comforted her each time.
I stayed with her until she fell asleep, singing all the songs I could—children's songs, pop songs, anime songs—while she whimpered and trembled.
Perhaps thanks to all that effort?
"I'm going. See you tomorrow..."
Before I left today.
Iomene smiled at me.
"She smiled... Iomene smi..."
When I relayed this, His Majesty the Emperor and the Empress couldn't hide their tears.
Right.
Although I was doing this to avoid my trip to hell, seeing them so happy didn't make me feel bad.
Looking at her condition, it wouldn't be long now.
It didn't seem like it would take much longer for the fragment of the evil god in Princess Iomene's body to transfer to me.
I had mixed feelings.
Although this isekai life had been full of nothing but bad memories one way or another, I felt sad thinking that I'd never see these people again.
Especially... Erpha.
I finally got a woman I was kind of dating, and now I had to leave already.
But what could I do?
My survival came first.
"Saint! My son...!"
"My mother's eyes can't see!"
I kept healing patients over and over again.
They were people I'd never see again anyway.
It would be good to heal them diligently one last time before I left.
Poor and rich.
Noble and commoner, I ran around healing sick and injured people diligently for 3 weeks without discrimination.
Thanks to that, donations and offerings from nobles increased even more, and the slums flourished even more using those offerings, but now, well.
I didn't care anymore.
The saint act that didn't suit me.
The explanation windows of the incredibly vulgar skills.
Now it was goodbye forever.
It felt almost like I had reached enlightenment.
Well.
The slums had normalized too.
What more incidents could happen now?
"Saint!! Saint!!"
"Saint Amael!! My daughter..."
"My wife got burned! Saint, please!!"
There were.
One morning.
While I was still drowsy with sleep, a group of people suddenly came knocking on my door.
When I hurriedly went outside at their extremely urgent voices, countless people with melting faces and foaming at the mouth were collapsed on the street.
"Quickly!! Bring potions quickly! Hurry!!"
The priests from the clinic were frantically flying around treating people, but even so, there were still many, many people to treat.
Most of them were women.
And young girls.
In that moment.
I realized who these people were.
The 15 match-selling girls I had saved from the back alleys.
They were people just like them.
"There was a fire at a nearby factory! Saint! Please save my wife!!"
At the voices of people wailing and shouting, I felt my mind snap to attention.
"Bring the critically ill patients to me! Right now!!"
At my shout, the Lilia priests of the Grace Order, who seemed well-trained and familiar with such situations, instantly sorted the patients and brought them to me.
I urgently treated the collapsed women.
Their faces were all miserable.
People choking from burns.
Women whose heads had burned completely, turning into hideous lumps of meat.
Young children injured so badly that their bones were exposed, with everything below their chin melted away, probably from phosphorus and white phosphorus poisoning.
As I frantically treated them, gradually.
Familiar faces started to come into my view.
"Saint! Please heal her!"
I remember healing a young girl whose face had melted from exposure to chemicals while making white phosphorus matches.
That girl was now suffering in front of me for similar reasons as before.
A woman who had come to me for treatment after losing fingers from being forced to continue working at a factory with bone-melting hard labor for meager pay because there were many mouths to feed at home and they were poor, was now lying in front of me with burns all over her body.
After restoring a crushed lump of meat into human form, I saw the faces of women and young children that remained in my memory.
Anger began to surge.
Why.
Why!
Why!!
Why are they appearing in front of me in the same state again after I healed them!?
I knew.
"There are few jobs that pay as high wages as the factories in the three slum districts. We're trying to attract as many businesses as possible, but... the majority of workers are still going to factories on the outskirts of the capital. Not all the poor in the capital can live on a daily wage of 1 saled."
I remember what Jonathan Karma had told me.
My fist clenched so hard it felt like it would crumble.
After treating all the dozens of critically ill patients brought to me, I walked forward, leaving behind the priests who were still treating patients.
"Where is the factory that caught fire?"
"The fire hasn't been completely extinguished yet! It's dangerous! Saint!"
"Guide me! Right now!!"
When I rarely raised my voice, the poor were startled and hurriedly guided me.
With every step I took following them, the smell of burning human flesh and acrid smoke stung my nose.
Unable to bear it anymore, I enhanced my strength with body modification and started running at an incredible speed.
There might be a few more people who could still be saved.
If I go a little earlier.
I might be able to save them.
Thinking that, I ran like crazy, but...
"Ahhh!! My daughter!! Ahhh!!"
"Mom! Mom!!"
"No! No! Please!"
In front of the factory that had caught fire, dozens of charcoal-like lumps that were hard to recognize as human were already strewn across the street.
Family members were clutching the charcoal lumps and wailing.
I approached the charcoal lumps and tried to use my skill.
[Skill activation is only possible on living creatures!]
[Skill activation is only possible on living creatures!]
[Skill activation is only possible on living creatures!]
[Skill activation is only possible on living creatures!]
Again and again.
I kept trying to use my skill, but the result was always the same.
I can't save them.
No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't bring back those who had already died.
Damn it.
What the hell is this fucking feeling?
As I was helplessly looking down at the terribly burned corpses.
"My daughter!! My daughter is still up there!"
"You can't go in!"
"Daughter!! Daughter!! My daughter!! Please save her! My daughter is still inside!"
I heard the screams of a young mother.
When I turned my head, I could see a young girl hesitating among the raging flames beyond the 3rd-floor balcony of the factory.
She’s still alive.
At that thought, my body was moving before I knew it.
"You can't go in! Saint!..."
Before the policeman trying to stop me could finish his words, I activated Time Stop.
I didn't know how long the child could hold out.
All I knew was that I needed to hurry.
As I had always done until now, I partially released Time Stop.
How?
In a way that I could walk straight up from where I was standing to the balcony where the child was.
Within the space where I released Time Stop, I started stepping on the layers of frozen air as if they were solid objects.
I just instinctively thought I might be able to use it like this, and fortunately, my plan was working.
After reaching the balcony in an instant by walking on air, I broke the window and jumped inside, finding myself face to face with the young girl.
The girl, whose skin had already been severely burned, was lying face down on the floor foaming at the mouth, seemingly unable to breathe properly due to the smoke.
I released Time Stop on the young girl's body and picked her up.
Then I used body modification.
The child's body was immediately healed.
As the pain disappeared and she became fine, the child looked at me with surprised eyes.
"Saint?"
I didn't have the energy to answer the child's words.
Damn it.
I had already consumed a considerable amount of mental power just from walking up that short distance.
This damn skill mechanism, really!
Still, it was a level I could endure sufficiently.
"Hold on to me tightly."
The child followed my words and clung tightly to my body.
Let's focus.
If I made a mistake, I might be fine, but the child could get hurt.
I started slowly descending, stepping on the frozen air layers just like before.
And not long after.
I was standing outside the factory with the child.
"...Sir! It's danger... Huh?"
The policeman who was trying to stop me shouted and was about to run towards me when Time Stop was released, but he stopped in surprise when he saw the child in my arms.
From his perspective, it probably looked like I, who had been standing still in front of him, suddenly appeared holding a child.
I put down the young child who had been neatly healed by body modification.
"This child to her mother..."
"Adele!!"
Before I could say anything, the child's mother ran over and hugged the young child tightly.
"Ah! Thank you! Thank you! Goddess Lilia! Saint! Thank you… Thank you."
Seeing the mother and child wailing and crying, a smile unconsciously formed on my lips.
"Bring the patients to me. I'll heal them."
I healed people over and over again to the best of my ability.
I didn't want to make any more people like those charcoal lumps.
As I was struggling like that, firefighters from the capital and mages from the Magic Tower rushed over and poured water and magic to extinguish the factory fire, and only then could I take a breather.
"What is this nonsense!?"
While I was leaning against the wall, giving my tired mind a brief rest.
I heard someone shouting.
"Who gave you permission to use the water in the warehouse!? That's all company property of Leota Company!"
I could see a fat middle-aged man shouting.
"If we hadn't drawn the water, the fire would have grown even bigger!"
"I don't care about that! I'll measure the amount of water drawn and charge for it! This is unheard of! Using company property without permission!"
The middle-aged man paid no attention to the firefighters' words.
At those words, the workers who had been collapsed on the ground got up one by one with fierce looks in their eyes.
"You! It's because of you!!"
"Factory manager! If you had just told Baron Hanson, the owner of Leota Company, to properly set up fire prevention facilities in the factory, my family wouldn't have burned to death! You son of a bitch!!"
The bereaved families of those who had become charcoal lumps shouted in anger, but the man called the factory manager didn't give a damn.
As if lighting a cigarette, he spat out yellow saliva and drawled.
"Noisy things. You're making a fuss to get money, huh? Fine! I'll give you some compensation. How about 1 saled per dead person? You have no complaints, right? It's more than your 3 months' salary."
The factory manager snickered.
"Those born poor are all cursed by the gods. You fucking bastards. Fire prevention facilities? It's cheaper to give 1 saled to each dead person, so why should we spend big money to make such things? You feel wronged? If you feel wronged, you're all fired. Fired! Do you want to lose your jobs along with your families?"
"You devil!! You devil!"
"Your soul will fall into hell! You fucking bastard!"
Wailing cries rang out, but still, no workers rushed at him.
Around the person called the factory manager, police officers with guns who had come to clean up the fire scene were standing by, and behind them, figures who looked like bodyguards were openly displaying guns on their waists while glaring at people.
Right.
They must be scared.
Getting shot hurts.
Moreover, even if they succeeded in subduing those bodyguards and police and beating them up, they would be more afraid of the consequences.
Firing.
Losing one’s job was sometimes scarier than getting shot.
I understood.
But what about me?
Police and bodyguards.
Do you have the guts to shoot me?
I'm the one treating the Emperor's daughter.
I'm a saint recognized by the Pantheon.
I guarantee you.
You absolutely can't shoot me.
And consequences?
Consequences be damned! I'm going back to Korea soon anyway.
I'm going to live in Korea where there's no hell or anything because my soul will be completely destroyed by the curse.
So...
[Body Modification! Strength x20!]
I can do this.
After casting body modification on my body, I looked around for something that could be used as a weapon and then unfastened the belt at my waist and held it in my hand.
And I rushed at the factory manager at an incredible speed.
The belt was swung at the factory manager who was spewing nonsense, with 20 times the strength.
With a sharp sound of whack!
The factory manager sprayed red corn from his teeth gloriously into the air and flew into the car door he had come in.